"The Shinra war machine has grinded to a screeching halt in their Wutai campaign. After losing half of their men in the recent failure to hold the bridge at Kyuryu River which bisects the Wutai island, the Shinra strike team has fallen back to their base camp in south Wutai. The spring rains in Wutai has flooded the southern lowlands, making it treacherous for troops and motorized vehicles alike and frequent flooding has become a serious barrier to progress. Statements from Shinra headquarters assures the public that Shinra is revising its strategy to deal with what they have dubbed guerrilla warfare on Wutai's part and have called the acts 'atrocious' and 'blatant breaches of war conduct'.
The men here at camp are disheartened by the series of losses they have seen. It is a sharp contrast to the general atmosphere in this camp mere months ago, when Shinra had been on the precipice of a decisive victory in Wutai.
Detractors of Shinra say that Wutai have acted no worse than the tactics Shinra has employed. Many people of Midgar just want this war to end and their children to come home. This is Linda Johnson, reporting for the Midgar Epoch live at the Shinra base camp in Crescent Bay. Back to you, Robert."
VI. Resurface (2)
"This is my lab," Reeve admitted to an impressed Cloud, "It isn't much yet, and I haven't had time to really tinker around, really."
"No," Cloud contradicted, "This is brilliant."
"Thank you." Reeve said, a little embarrassed. It was a second bedroom he turned into a workspace after he divorced five years ago. His dream of turning it into a nursery left with his wife. Now, several mechanical drawings for potential projects were plastered to the walls, a work desk sat facing the window, and monstrosity of bare wires and composite board sat in one corner. Reeve saw Cloud looking at the last item in puzzlement.
"That's a CNC mill," Reeve explained hastily, "I salvaged it when the Weapons Department did a complete upgrade of the machine shop last year."
"Ja," Cloud nodded, "I've worked with one. Never seen one this complicated or compact though." Reeve looked at the young man in surprise.
"You have?"
"Yeah, ol' Richards had a standard one in his workshop. I worked there to earn money for passage to Midgar," Cloud explained. "I mostly know motorcycle and car parts though. These look really complicated." Cloud gestured to the drawings around the room.
"Well, this one doesn't work yet. I've been trying to fix it for ages but I've just never had much time and it's really messed up. I guess there is a reason why Scarlet threw it out…"
Cloud shrugged. He looked up at the poster next to him.
"Is that a cat?" Reeve looked up and flushed in embarrassment again.
"Oh, that old thing," He ripped it down. "I wanted to make a toy robot that can act on its own. Kind of like the story of the nutcracker. Kinda sounds stupid now that I say it."
"Nah, it's cool," Cloud asserted and grabbed the drawing from Reeve's hands to examine. "This is really detailed. Have you started?" Reeve shook his head.
"I can't make all the parts for it, since the machine is broken," Reeve explained walking over to the silent machine and pointing into the gut of it. "The machine is computer controlled, so I can program it with my drawings. However, the main drive is broken."
"Hmm…" Cloud leaned closer and then swiped away the dust to look closer, "Looks like those motors need to be completely scrapped and replaced…"
"Good, you can probably help me," Reeve said, running a hand through his hair. Goodness, it was getting long and he needed a haircut. He walked over to his desk and searched in a drawer, grabbing a rubber band. Pulling his hair back into a short tuft at the back, he turned to Cloud who was still examining the DIY fixer-upper machine.
"You know anything about stepper motors?" Cloud nodded.
"I can wire 'em up, but you're gonna have to program," Cloud remarked as he rolled up the sleeves of his dark blue turtleneck sweater. Reeve laughed.
"Sounds perfect. We can-"
Reeve's company phone beeped. He froze, then swiped it off his desk, and flipped it open to scan the text he received. He ran into his living room and flipped on the news, just to see footage of a fireball blowing out the windows of a top floor. Then, he sighed.
"Looks like we are going to have to postpone this. Emergency executive meeting in an hour." Cloud frowned as he watched the footage with Reeve.
"Looks serious."
"Yeah it is," Reeve answered as his hand came up to massaged his own neck, "Come on. I'll drop you off and explain on the way."
"Reno has regained consciousness and is still being seen to in the infirmary," Tseng reported as he looked over his clipboard. That lucky son of a bitch with nine lives.
"Overall, there had been six deaths and fourteen injuries. One was a prisoner brought in earlier, who was trapped under a blown out wall. The other five were killed in the subsequent explosion near Professor Hojo's office and the monster rampage that followed. Because Professor Hojo was not in the lab at the time, he was not in the casualty count."
Veld nodded as the two men walked toward the Soldier conference room on floor fifty-one, since the explosion on floor sixty-seven also made the executive boardroom on sixty-six temporarily unusable. How Hojo had convinced the President to put the detention area and the lab together, and furthermore put it right between the executive floors Veld will never know. This recent attack just shows what a folly that was.
"And the second explosion?" Tseng shook his head.
"Currently, that looks like an unrelated incident. The first explosion may have triggered some kind of chemical reaction of highly volatile substances inside the lab. We are still trying to find the source, but the fire marshals have ruled it an accident right now."
"Dig into it," Veld ordered, "And have Reno and Rude on it as soon as Reno is on his feet. They will know best."
Veld knew it sounded like he was being hard on Reno. But Reno and Rude were their explosive experts, and they could not afford to wait in the aftermath of this attack.
It's been three months since the break-in at the General's office. Since then, the Turks have expanded every effort trying to track down the perpetrators and following leads on the new anti-Shinra group in the wood work- the group called AVALANCHE that they now know originated in Cosmo Canyon as an eco-conservation group and since reorganized in Junon, becoming militarized. It was around that time that a man named Fuhito and the group crossed paths, but the Turks lost track of the man since then.
To alleviate the problem of having more leads (and more dead ends) than he had Turk operatives, he has been forced to work with Lazard and Heidegger to cover the lower priority locations, something Veld hated to do. The Shinra military was trained to fight, not to be investigators. They had an unfortunate tendency to trample over any evidence or level an entire block chasing one suspect. They had the enhancements, firepower, and manpower, though. That was something Turks did not have spread thin as they are in long term assignments.
"Yes sir," Tseng agreed, "Another matter of concern-" They stopped in front of the closed conference door guarded by Gun.
"If this is about the girl," Veld interrupted, "It can wait." He nodded to Gun.
"Boss," Gun greeted at the door and stepped aside, "Everyone is present."
She had a white bandage at the corner of her mouth, and her normally crisp suit had seen better days. One hand was also wrapped, and there were dark smudges under her eyes. But despite all this, she carried herself with a straight back and quiet confidence that Gun always seemed to have.
Veld initially had reservations about recruiting females. Gun, the first of many, disabused him of his initial hesitance. A woman was able to gain access to many places most men could not, and put targets at ease in undercover operations. But, as a woman, she had to harden up quickly to not get lost in the shuffle. The work place romance she had with Rod was also troubling, though it hadn't affected her focus on the job thus far.
"Good," Veld walked in and Gun returned to her position guarding the door as it slid shut at her back.
"Mr. President. Gentlemen. Miss Scarlet," Veld greeted. All of the executive board was present including Hojo, who was flown in via helicopter after much protest for interrupting an important experiment in the Junon testing facility.
"Now what is this all about?" Hojo complained grumpily, "I have been interrupted from an important experiment. By the time I get back, my specimen will be dead."
"I will get to that," Veld frowned, "Part of what has happened is your responsibility, Professor Hojo." Speaking over Hojo's outraged demands, Veld continued. "At fourteen minutes past nineteen hundred tonight, a suspect detained by our operatives succeeded in transporting a bomb into our facility. We have not collected enough pieces of him to reconstruct the events-"
Scarlet huffed and shrilled, "Yes, tell us how you can let an armed suspected terrorist walk into the most secure-"
"We believe," Veld cut in, "The terrorist sewed the explosive device into his own body. When the detention center guards conducted the search, they saw a partially healed scar but overlooked it. Might I add that the guards in question are under your jurisdiction, Heidegger?"
"What?" Heidegger stood up, shaking a fist. The legs of his chair dragging loudly as it slid back, "How could you blame this on me? It was your lack of foresight in dealing with this dangerous criminal. A criminal under Turk jurisdiction!"
"You are obviously to blame, Heidegger," Scarlet snorted, "Remember how you asked for funding. Funding that was promised to me last year to station more troops in Costa del Sol? Where's that money gone? You bought a beach house with it haven't you? I could have added metal detectors instead!"
"No, you would have spent it getting-"
"Well, obviously we all know how Scarlet would have spent it," Rufus commented snidely from beside his father, "Certainly not for developing metal detectors."
"Enough. You too, Rufus." Roscoe said gruffly, slapping the table once with his meaty fist, "Veld, continue. I want to hear the rest of your report." Heidegger snorted loudly, but collapsed back in his seat.
"Unfortunately," Veld admitted, "There is still not much to report. The suspect escaped five months ago from an insane asylum on the plate and then went underground, during which time we have no idea of his movements until he resurfaced at a bar eavesdropping on our operatives."
"You mentioned he was an unreliable witness?" Lazard asked.
"Yes, hospital records indicate that he was diagnosed with a severe case of disassociate personality disorder after his wife was killed during a Shinra crack down on the base of a now disbanded insurgent organization. Throughout the questioning, he had moments of lucidity and indicated that he remembers a rebel facility near the coast. This corroborates other evidence, and we were investigating that lead. The owners and other patrons in the bar the suspect frequents are also being detained for questioning."
"How are your best operatives eavesdropped on by a lunatic. That is sloppy," Rufus mocked, leaning back on his padded chair and crossing his legs. Veld ignored him.
"Lazard, considering what happened two hours ago, I recommend we withdraw the troops near Junon. If my suspicions are right, the memory and personality defects our suspect exhibited might be part of a larger scheme. Maybe even memory implantation."
"If you are right, Veld," Lazard steepled his fingers together and looked across the long table gravely, "We need to get them out of there right now." Next to him, Sephiroth flipped open his new phone and typed something into it. Even his normally impassive face looked troubled.
Veld recalled suddenly that it was Zack who was leading one of the squads. No doubt, this matter will have the attention of the three most powerful Soldiers in Shinra soon.
"I have sent a withdrawal order. The three squads out there are being contacted as we speak." Veld nodded.
"Good. Now I wish to talk about the piece of information my men stumbled on by accident. The very information that our deceased suspect overheard." Veld turned to Reeve, who had been silent during this entire meeting, "This is the reason I requested for Director Tuesti's presence."
"I don't understand," Reeve defended, arms coming up across his chest, "I have not been included in talks about terrorist activity at all. Should I remind you, Director Veld, that I am only responsible for urban development?"
"And, that is precisely why involving you is paramount now," Veld sighed, "It has come to our attention that the Midgar reactors, in fact every reactor in operation, currently has a fundamental design flaw."
"Preposterous," Hojo objected, "I designed the system myself. It is perfect. Any flaws must come from the building project surround it."
"Actually, Hojo," Reeve leaned forward, "I recall the Science Department insisted on full control of the reactor renovation project, indeed capturing a significant portion of the funds originally meant for the Department of Urban Development. There is a one mile radius restriction zone around each one against commercial buildings, as you ordered."
"Director Tuesti is correct," Veld interjected quickly, hoping to stave off another argument in this already tense meeting before things got out of hand. "However, it seems that each of the reactors have a cooling station that is exposed and vulnerable as it is left outside of the controlled perimeter erected around the main reactors themselves and out of the no-fly zone set up around each tower." Reeve was silent in thought.
"Yes, that is a valid concern."
"Nonsense, the reactor shuts off automatically during all power failures and failures to the cooling tower." Hojo huffed.
"There are fail safes, of course, to shut down the reactors during a system failure," Reeve conceded, "But there is considerable lag time between power cut off and quelling the chain reactions going on in there. With the added walls around most of the reactors, heat dissipation won't be as efficient. The failure to the heat exchangers could cause a massive meltdown. I suggest-"
"I suggest," Scarlet purred, "Added units around the vulnerable areas. It makes no sense to start a major construction project like Reeve would suggest over something as minor as a few bomb threats. My automated units would be much cheaper. And honestly, who would want to bomb a reactor anyway? It's the lifeblood of the entire economy on this planet."
"Anyone annoyed with Shinra, that's who." Reeves muttered under his breath next to where Veld stood. At least one man was nominally on the same page as him. Though he was missing the big picture, and for good reason. Reeve is an executive, but he has no top level access. And he should not.
"That's preposterous," Heidegger boomed, "Protection of company assets inside Midgar falls under the jurisdiction of the military police units. Your mechanized units are completely unreliable!"
"Your units are spread thin as it is in Wutai," Lazard sighed, "As are ours. No one should have complete jurisdiction in this case."
"Lazard speaks truth," Roscoe harrumphed, "The protection of any vulnerabilities you see fit falls under the joint jurisdiction of the infantry and the Soldier divisions, with support as you see fit from the Weapons department."
"Mr. President-" Reeve opened his mouth to protest.
"I see no reason to spend more money when we can crush these bugs easily under our feet. I cannot see any justifiable return on investment in what you plan to propose, Reeve. How much would it cost in production downtime and capital to rebuild the reactors? We can't afford that, not with a war going on," the President said. He turned to Veld. "Anything else?" Veld paused for a forthcoming response, but it seems that Reeve decided to hold his tongue.
"I do have one more suggestion- to move the science department to lower levels permanently and use this opportunity to remodel the sixty-seventh and sixty-sixth floor. This attack has demonstrated that it makes no logical sense to place the detention cells and labs so close to you, Mr. President," Veld appealed to Roscoe, "It is unnecessarily endangering your safety and the safety of all the executives sitting here."
"That's preposterous!" Hojo yelled, outraged. "Do not blame your incompetence on me, you-"
"Hojo, the man speaks sense," Scarlet said smugly. Veld recalled that she had never really like the idea that Hojo occupied almost two entire floors of the tower in the secure upper floors when the vast majority of her weapons development department was housed in a separate building entirely. "We are shown that you have been keeping dangerous substances and even monsters on a high security floor, only three floors away from the President himself. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"You!" Hojo growled, "My experiments are incredibly sensitive and secret. Too sensitive to move! Might I remind you that I provide every treatment to create Soldiers in this company? Or that many of the technology your department relies on, Scarlet, comes from my department?"
"Your department, maybe, but certainly not your private labs," Scarlet screamed back. "Many of my projects do not come from your biological department Hojo. In fact, I don't really know what you are doing in your department. All I know your lab assistants go missing all the time, and all the others fear to hear your name!"
Veld looked across the table and looked at Sephiroth, who up until this point had been leaning against a wall, arms crossed and looking bored behind Lazard. Veld knew that the boredom was just an act and he was observing the proceedings closely. When Sephiroth caught Veld's eye, he gave a subtle nod.
Looks like some of those unsavory rumors about Hojo dipping into his lab assistant pool for human specimens might have more than just a grain of salt then. Veld grimaced and made a mental note to look into it as soon as some of his people could be freed up. It wasn't a priority for him right now. Especially without Roscoe's support.
As the head of a department that "did the President's dirty work" so to speak, Veld bitterly thought, he technically did not have to answer to anyone but Roscoe. However, the President was relying on Hojo to supply his souped up Soldiers to fight a war. Whatever reservations the president might have had about the man fell by the wayside.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Hojo sniffed when he calmed down, "and I most certainly don't have any volatile chemicals in my lab. You can check the order records if you like."
"All fakes no doubt," Reeve murmured again under his breath. Veld actually had to try this time to stifle a smirk.
"However," Hojo said calmly, "It is possible that one of my assistants had done something I did not authorized. I will dismiss all of them and hire new, better trained ones."
So you can experiment on the ones you "fired" was probably a thought shared by much of the room.
"You will do no such thing," the President said crossly, "It's hard enough finding you assistants. They keep on dying so much we've had to forcibly assign the last five. Two of them rather quit then work for you." The balding man sighed.
The President had once confided to Veld that he wouldn't keep Hojo around if it wasn't for the fact that the man held the secret to the Soldier Program. He had attempted to have one other scientist decode it so he wouldn't rely on Hojo so much, but to no avail right now. The man was tight-fisted with information and had his assistant perform only the most menial aspects of the research. Hollander was not much better an alternative. In many ways, Shinra is held hostage to Hojo's demands. if it wanted to retain its Soldier program and the programs three most powerful people.
To make things worse, one of the best kept secrets in the Soldier program was that a large percent of men who undergo the treatment see poor mental health later in life. Few last for very long after their prime and degrade quickly. Veld knew because he was involved in a program to track Soldiers after their discharge. The results were unpromising. For some reason, after stopping mako treatments, their minds and bodies seem to rebel against them.
Many end up on mako based drugs and loitering in the slums, if they chose to stay in Midgar, and have become a major contributor to crime. Shinra spends a lot of money "putting them down" quietly. It wouldn't do the company image good to be tied to artificially enhanced thugs.
"I will consider relocation of the lab to a different floor," the President finally said, "If you want it on floor sixty-six again, Hojo, you better come to me with a damn good reason. For now, just concentrate on make sure that the building is structurally sound, Reeve. If that is everything…"
"Yes, President Shinra." The second emergency board meeting in as many weeks was finally dismissed as the members rose quickly, eager to go home after being called out rudely.
"Veld, wait. You mentioned someone who noticed the reactor design fault," Reeve said to Veld who halted in his path to the door. Veld turned around.
"Turks don't divulge their informants."
"I know that," Reeve shrugged, "But you might want to ask him what he would do. If he noticed the problem, he might have thought of a solution."
"Maybe," Veld said neutrally, "Goodnight, director."
"I hope so," Reeve remarked flippantly as they parted ways in front of the conference room door.
"How did it go, boss," Gun asked as she walked a step behind him on their way to his office.
"As well as it can go, all things considered," Veld sighed, "As well as it can."
Zack groaned and blearily opened his eyes. It was still dark. He could make out the crumpled figures of the rest of his team just barely and he frowned when he realized that, save two, the his entire squad was captured including the entrance unit. The other squad was here too, largely intact though their third class Soldier squad lead was missing. Moving his hands and feet, Zack realized he was bound tightly with thick roped. Normally, that wasn't enough to hold a Soldier for long, and he didn't think his captors where prepared for Soldiers. However, he felt weak and sore all over and still extremely dizzy. Looks like he was drugged too. Sleep spells don't have aftereffects.
"Sir," a voice croaked to the right, "Are you awake?"
"Lee," Zack said relieved, turning his body this way and that, but unable to get the corporal in his field of vision, "What happened?"
"The same thing that happened to you, sir. They call themselves 'avalanche' and they've been taking the men one by one. None of them are back. They got real excited when they realized the other commander was a Soldier. Be careful, sir." Zack cursed.
"Can't do much about eyeshine, corporal. You said the men aren't back?"
There was a pause. Zack guessed the corporal nodded and then realized Zack couldn't see him.
"Yes, sir. They've already taken half the other squad since I woke up, including the leader, and they've started in on our squad too. Not sure what they want." Zack sighed.
With so many of them, the survival rate was low for every person that was taken. If they are looking for information, they can just keep killing guys in front of the commander or hurting them until they break or they die.
Zack looked around for means of escape. The chamber was a hollowed out chamber, probably part of the same cave system. It just had the one door on one end. He fingered around his binds. Did they…?
"They've taken all our equipment, sir."
Well, that goes that idea. No bangle, no sword, no helmets. Not even the knife Zack concealed in his boot. In fact, their footwear was gone along with the rest of it. Whoever these guys are, they had some knowledge of Shinra troopers at least. Zack could feel himself thinking more clearly though, and his drug induced weakness leaving him as time passed. It was just a matter of time before I can slip the binds, Zack thought as he wiggled his hands and feet, trying to get blood back into them. Thank goodness for increased metabolism after mako treatments, even if his food budget was huge every month.
"Do you know what they want?"
"Hard to say, sir," the corporal answered, "The captors didn't really say much."
"Shit. And corporal, considering the situation we're in, feel free to call me Zack."
"Yes, sir- I mean, Zack. I'm Scott."
Just then, the door slammed open, shining light into the dark cavern. Zack could see a man stride in with square glasses and dark hair. He looked fairly young, but Zack couldn't really make out much in the faint light.
"Well look at that," the man paused when he caught sight of Zack and gave the struggling third class a smug smirk, "Another Soldier. The first one screamed delightfully and gave a real fight when we dissected him. I think I will keep you alive though…you always need baseline controls for every good experiment." He turned to the men behind him. Both had beaked masks on, reminiscent of the ones provided to most Shinra troops under first class Soldiers.
The pair moved forward and dragged one of the unconscious man out.
"What are you doing?" Zack cried weakly, "He's unconscious! He can't tell you anything."
"I don't need them conscious," Zack heard before he was knocked unconscious again with a sharp knock to the head.
"Sir," The lieutenant saluted nervously to the colloquially called "holy trinity" of Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis, afraid of the repercussions of interrupting their discussion, "None of the teams sent to Junon have reported in." Angeal's expression turned thunderous.
"How is that possible?"
"Unknown, sir. The base in Junon has lost all radio contact with them as of two days ago." Sephiroth raised a brow.
"Why is this only being reported to us today? I requested updates yesterday and was told that the situation was normal."
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant explained as quickly as his mouth would let him, hoping that the pissed off looking commanders were not about to shoot the messenger, so to speak, "Junon explained that the team had been in charge of exploring sea cliffs to the south, and it was an area of heavy radio interference so it was normal to lose radio contact for days. When the team failed to report in today during their scheduled return, the based decided to contact Midgar." The commanders were silent.
"You are dismissed," Sephiroth finally said.
"Yes, sir!" the man said in relief and near fled from the room where a thunderstorm seemed to be brewing. Angeal flipped open his phone and sent a message. Then he made for the elevator.
"'My friend, why do you fly away now'?" Genesis asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Angeal said, "I'm going to Junon." Genesis sighed.
"You don't even know where to look. I'm coming with you."
Sephiroth stayed silent, watching the exchange between the two friends, heads bent together, with shuttered eyes. When they looked up, Sephiroth averted his gaze.
"No," Angeal frowned, "You need to stay here. The last two explosions and all the security breaches are making the executive board twitchy. We won't hear the end of it if two first class Soldiers left on 'nonessential' missions." Genesis huffed but stayed put when Angeal turned and left.
"Three friends go into battle. One is captured, one flees, and the one that is left becomes a hero," He leaned back into he wall and tilted his head up, eyes gazing sightlessly at the ceiling. "If we were to reenact it, would I be the one to play the hero? Or you?"
"Neither," Sephiroth answered as he too swept out of the room, "Men like us don't become heroes."
Another chapter! (Because I am captain obvious)